


Not Everyone Can Carry the Weight of the World

by SuperTeenWizard



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Cute, Fluff, M/M, Post-The Blood of Olympus, Romance, Some angst, solangelo, three days in the infirmary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 00:43:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3830812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperTeenWizard/pseuds/SuperTeenWizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One week after the battle with Gaia, Nico finds himself under Will's care while he recuperates at the infirmary. The two boys battle their own feelings for one another, and, when rumours of an evil titan begin to circulate, must go on a quest to find this mysterious foe and thwart its attempt at destroying the gods....</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Everyone Can Carry the Weight of the World

**Author's Note:**

> The title is inspired by the REM song 'Talk About the Passion' (its a good song, you should listen to it!).

**Chapter 1**

  
Nico looked up at the welcoming blue doors to the infirmary and took a deep breath. Will had made him promise to come here for his three days of rest so he had come. But that didn't mean he was happy about it.  
When he had agreed to it he had thought it might be good to have some time of uninterrupted rest (and maybe get to know a certain son of Apollo a bit better!), but now he wasn't so sure. Will already had a lot on his plate and Nico would just be an unwanted nuisance.  
But a promise is a promise so here he was. It couldn't be that bad after all. As long as no one bothered him too much Nico would be fine.  
Lost in thought, the young Italian didn't notice Will come up behind him.  
"Here already, death boy?" He said jovially, "I thought I would have to drag you out of the Hades cabin myself!"  
"Yeah, well. Don't get too excited Will, I'm only here because I said I would be, this isn't exactly my idea of fun. And don't call me death boy, you're lucky I haven't summoned an army of skeletons to smite you with for that." Nico mumbled as they made their way inside. "The second these three days are up I'm out of here."  
"Sure, Di Angelo." Will replied in the same care-free tone. It was strange, most of the other campers were terrified of Nico and avoided him at all costs, but the whole 'son of the death god' thing didn't seem to bother Will. If Nico was being completely honest with himself it was nice to have someone around that didn't turn the opposite direction every time they saw him. Other then the main guys that helped defeat Gaea (Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Hazel, Piper, Frank, Reyna and Leo) Nico didn't have very many friends and most of them were at camp Jupiter or off doing other things. It was refreshing to have someone so open and happy to talk to.  
They went through the main hallway of the infirmary and into one of the wards, there were about twenty other demigods in the room already, with injuries varying from broken limbs to one boy with a strange rash covering one side of his already pimply face.  
"For the next three days you will be resting here," the golden haired boy continued, whilst pointing to a comfy looking bed in the corner of the spacious room. It was secluded, out of the way and exactly the bed Nico would have picked himself. "And you will not do anything at all strenuous. Lately you have been doing way too much hard work and you really need to rest. Doctors orders, alright? Strictly no underworldy stuff, or I will prolong your stay. I mean it." Nico had no doubt about that. It was obvious that even though most of the time Will was a charming, charismatic and carefree person, when it came to healing he was strictly business and downright scary if he needed to be.  
Will motioned to the bed and then leant against the wall, clearly waiting for Nico to get into bed. The Italian sighed and got under the covers but didn't lie down, instead he propped the pillows up and sat against them. "What now?" Nico asked impatiently, as he was already bored.  
Will chuckled at him "Now, Death boy, I am going to do some routine check ups on you and then you will sleep." Will reached out to pick up the clip board lying on Nico's bedside table and wrote down some measurements.  
The younger boy watched all of this with mild interest until Will gently reached out to take his patients wrist. But when Nico realised what was about to happen he pulled back, as he always did when someone was about to touch him, it was an instinct Nico had possessed for a while, he just didn't like being touched.  
"I just need to take your pulse and blood pressure, okay Nico?" Will reassured him calmly, "I will be done in a second and then you can get some rest."  
Nico sighed and nervously offered up his wrist, which was then grasped gently by the larger boy.  
"Your heart rate is pretty fast Death boy, you gotta relax buddy."  
"Don't call me death boy," Nico muttered, and took a deep breath.  
_Seriously, Nico? You have been through Tartarus, the most terrifying place in existence, all by yourself and survived, carried a massive Greek statue halfway across the world with shadow travel, helped defeat Gaia, one of the strongest titans in the world, can summon armies of skeletons and ghosts at will and have defeated millions of monsters. But the second you have to let some cute guy touch your wrist you get all nervous and shaky? C'mon man! Your the freaking ghost king!! Pull your self together._  
"Yeah, that's a lot better now and your blood pressure is perfect."  
_See, that wasn't too hard was it?_  
Will wrote his measurements down on the clipboard, put it back onto the bedside table and got up.  
"I will be back in about an hour for a check up and  to get some food into you. Untill then, get some rest. Alright death boy?"  
 "Yes _sunshine_ ," Nico replied mockingly, if Will was going to insist on calling him stupid names then he would get one of his own!  
"Sunshine?"  
"If you call me death boy I call you sunshine." the laugh that the jibe pulled out of Will was the most beautiful sound the Italian boy had ever heard.  
"I guess that's fair, see you in an hour death boy!" Will said cheerily as he left the room, with a large grin covering his tanned face.  
Nico settled down to go to sleep, happier than he had been in a long time.  
Maybe these few days wouldn't be as bad as he had thought.

  
                     <\----------->

  
When Will came back he was laden with heaps of delicious looking chocolates and lollies, a (not so delicious looking) sandwich, and an apple.  
Nico had only just woken up when the older boy came in, so he was still rubbing his eyes and yawning when Will sat down in the chair next to his bed and dumped everything he was holding into Nico's lap.  
"So how did you sleep death boy?" Will asked cheerily as he picked up a chocolate from the massive pile.  
"Well thanks, _sunshine_. A lot better then I have in a while." Nico replied vaguely, still tired from just waking up and slightly confused from the sudden appearance of all the food. "What's with all the food? I didn't think you would let me within a mile of all this junk food, you being a doctor and all."  
"Yeah, well normally I would insist on strictly health food but you are a different case." Will took a bite of his snickers them continued, "You are way too skinny for my liking so you need to eat more, doctors orders. But before you have any of the sweets you need to eat the healthy food."  
Nico peered down at the sandwich dubiously. It didn't look all that appetizing in amongst all the lollies.  
"Ugh. Do I have to?"  
"Yup," Will answered brightly through a mouthful of chocolate. He swallowed and then continued. "And you slept so well because some campers from the Hecate cabin put spells on the place for deep sleep and good dreams. They are like the ones on the Hypnos cabin but not as strong."  
"Huh, cool." Nico picked up the sandwich gingerly and tool a bite, it had chicken, lettuce, and cheese inside and tasted a lot nice then he had expected.  
"Do you mind if I take another set of measurements? I just need to check and see if everything is normal."  
"Go aheb-," Nico replied around a large bite of sandwich (he was hungrier than he thought he had originally thought) and offered up his wrist.  
Will pushed the sleeve of Nico's leather jacket up a bit to get to more of his wrist and revealed the ends of the scars on the younger boys arm.  
"Hey, what are these? Can you please take your jacket off so I can check them fully." Will's tone was dripping in worry and concern.  
"Wha-, oh them." The Italian shrugged off his jacket to reveal four long claw marks trailing down his skinny, slightly muscled arm. The deep red of the scars showing up brightly on his pale skin. "That was from a werewolf. We were kinda in a hurry so I didn't really get the chance to treat it...."  
"Yeah, it looks slightly infected. I'll just go get some ointment." Will got up and left muttering something about 'werewolves' and 'stupid demigods that don't look after themselves'.  
When he got back Nico had finished his health food and was onto a milky way. Will sat back in his chair and then dipped his fingers into a jar of purple, gooey jell. "Can I have your arm for a sec?" The younger boy put his arm out, scars up, timidly. "This might sting a bit."  
That was an understatement. As soon. As the paste touched his skin Nico felt like his arm was on fire. But it only lasted a couple of seconds.  
"GODS!" Nico yelped, "Sting a _bit_? That felt like Zeus just attacked my arm with his master bolt!"  
"Sorry, but the pain _is_ different for different injuries and I've never actually had a werewolf scar so..." The older boy has the audacity to look slightly sheepish but otherwise doesn't seem all that bothered, he made some more measurements on the clip board the looked back up. "Speaking of Zeus, how is Jason going? I heard he was making shrines to all the minor gods."  
"Oh, yeah. Last I heard he is making a for the spirit _Gelos_."  
"Gelos?"  
"Yeah. Apparently he is the spirit of laughter. Its cool, Jason is so enthusiastic about all the shrines. He says heaps of the gods have come and personally thanked him when he finishes making their one."  
Nico and Will spent the next forty-five or so minutes chatting and eating the massive collection of food. And by the time Will had to go to check on some of the other patients they were both content.

  
                      <\----------->

  
_The red landscape carried on as far as the eye could see and was dotted with the forms of all types of monsters making their way through the rough terrain, which was irregularly spotted with large jagged rocks. Rocks similar to the one Nico was hiding behind right now. He could feel the beads of sweat rolling down the back of his grimy neck and the sensation of despair was rising up inside him, an all-consuming fear that made his breaths come quickly and his hands shake a bit._  
_He could hear his name being called out condescendingly by the evil creatures and knew that he wasn't going to survive this. He would die, all alone, in the depths of Tartarus and not a single person would know. And if they did they probably wouldn't care any way, he thought, I'm the son of Hades, the creepy guy that can talk to ghosts and travel to the underworld unharmed._  
_He could hear the monsters getting closer and knew he was nearing his end. Then, out of nowhere, he suddenly noticed a massive gorge about 50 meters away. He decided to try his luck._  
_Nico jumped up and sprinted full pelt towards the cliffs edge, stumbling on his way on loose stones. When he got to the endless drop he didn't even hesitate for a second, he just jumped._  
_For a second he was suspend mid-air, as though the whole world (or more accurately underworld) was holding its breath, and then he was falling._  
_Falling, falling, fall-_  
Nico jerked awake with a start. He slammed up into a sitting position and had to gasp for breath. His face was drenched in sweat and he could feel a reassuring hand on his shoulder.  
"Nico? Its okay, everything's okay now." Wills voice was reassuring and Nico let himself slump into the bigger boys embrace, to tired and scared to bother with his usual no touching rule. "Take a deep breath, there we go. Everything is okay."  
The son of Hades took deep breaths until he started to relax. That is, until he tensed up again when he realised he was collapsed in the son of Apollo's arms. Nico leant back suddenly and pushed a hand through his damp hair.  
"Um, do you think you could call of your skeletons now?" Will asked tentatively.  
"Skeletons? What skel-... Oh" Nico finally noticed that they were not alone 8 or 9 skeleton soldiers were surrounding them, as though standing guard. Nico lazily waved a hand and they sunk back into the ground. "Sorry, I must of accidently summoned them in my sleep. I do that sometimes, but I didn't know if I would need to mention it because you said that the wards stoped bad dreams."  
"Yeah, well they normally do. But we do occasionally have a dream if its really strong. Normally the dreams we do have are prophetic though, not nightmares." Will, who was sitting on the edge of Nico's bed, sighed heavily and looked down at his clasped hands. "You scared me there death boy. When I came in to check on everything the room was full of skeletons and you were starting to fade away."  
"Sorry, I can't control it." The younger boy said softly, guilty looking anywhere but Will.  
"I'm not angry at you Nico, I just wish you didn't have to go through this. _I'm_ sorry the spells didn't work. Being the captain around here I should -" Will suddenly stood up, with an air of excitement about him. "Gimme a sec, I just need to go grab something."  
And with that the healer raced as quietly as possible out of the room, leaving Nico to gaze after him in confusion.  
When Will got back 15 minutes later Nico was sitting up with his legs to his chest and his arms around them, staring at the far wall. The older boy sat down in his chair and held out a laptop triumphantly.  
"What's that for?" Nico asked, no more enlightened then he had been when Will walked out.  
"Well, death boy, I'm assuming you don't really want to go back to sleep after that so I decided I'd keep you busy. We're going to watch some movies. Because you have a lot of catching up to do since  the 1930's and I have some brilliant movies. Now, I'm gonna start you off with someone I think you will be able to relate to!" The son of Apollo said the last part in a mischievous tone, as he opened up a dvd and put it into the laptop.  
"Why do I get the feeling something bad is about to happen?" Nico implored.  
"Because you are paranoid and don't trust anyone. But don't worry Nico, your going to love this." Will pushed play on the disc, then got out two pairs of head phones and plugged them into the laptop. "Now shove over, I love this movie and I'm not going to pass up a chance to watch it, no matter how early in the morning it is!"  
Nico looked hesitantly up at Will when he mentioned moving over. When his nervous gaze was met with a stern one the Italian moved over to one side of the bed, leaving enough room for Will to slide nonchalantly down next to him and place the laptop on his legs where they could both see the screen.  
Nico could feel every point where there bodies met like a burning itch. He was aware of every breath Will took and every move he made. This was the exact reason he didn't like touching people. Everything became more _intimate_. More private. And Nico was not a massive fan of intimacy, because with that came honesty and telling how you feel, baring your soul to them. Which, in turn, would lead to judgement and people looking at you like some kind of freak.  
Nico shuffled further over to his side of the bed.  
The movie began to play and the boys put their headphones on and got comfortable.  
By the end of the movie Nico was entirely relaxed and there was virtually no gap in-between the two of them. They talked for a while about how great the movie had been and Nico privately thought to himself that the main character didn't look half bad either (in other words he was incredibly hot and in some shirtless parts of the film Nico had had to work a bit not to start hyperventilating.).  
"But I don't get why you said I would relate to him. I mean yeah, Captain America was really cool and he was good at fighting and stuff but-"  
"What do you mean? Didn't you see that end part."  
"Yeah, but he just randomly wakes up in present day."  
"You'll get it more when you watch the winter soldier."  
"The winter soldier?"  
"It's the sequel."  
"But Steve crashed his plane. He practically died. He won't know anyone or anything. And he defeated Hydra so..."  
"You'll see death boy, you'll see."  
Will took the disc out of the player, put a new one in and pressed play. By the end of the movie Steve Rogers was Nico's favourite person in the world. Well, fictional person at least.  
"Holy Hades. Practically the exact same thing happened to us! The only difference is that he isn't Italian and I wasn't frozen. I hope he finds Bucky..."  
"Yeah, I thought you'd like it. But they haven't made a third one yet. Which sucks."  
"Oh. Dammit." Nico stretched his arms up over his head and yawned. "What's the time?"  
"It's 7.46 so I should probably go and have breakfast."  
"You normally get up at this time?" Nico asked disbelievingly. "But its sooo early."  
"I'm a son of Apollo. We all rise with the sun, its in our blood. Anyway, I'll bring you back some food and some more dvds to keep you preoccupied. Do you want more marvel, superhero stuff or some hard-core porn?"  
Nico nearly fell of the bed when he heard the last comment and his checks went bright red. "Porn? But you.. WHAT? I don't.. I..Why would I... You can't just... You have po- What??"  
Will was nearly on the floor and gasping for breath because he was laughing so hard. "You should have seen your face. Oh gods. You actually thought I meant it. Ahhh. Sorry. It was just too good an opportunity to pass up. But seriously what movies do you want?"  
"Ugh. You're so immature Will. I dunno. Some more superheroes as well as something else. I don't really mind. As long as its not, you know. _That_."  
"Okay. I'll be back in a little while death boy."  
"See you then sunshine."

  
                     <\----------->

  
Nico was fast asleep when Will reentered the room and was thankfully resting peacefully. When he woke up there was a large collection of dvds on his bedside table, along with the laptop, a plate of food and a note which read:  
_Death boy,_  
_I brought you the avengers and Thor, which are both marvel, and all of the Harry Potters (I just realised that you wouldn't know anything about them and everyone should read or watch Harry Potter at least once). Don't worry, I left out the porn._  
_You need to eat all this food or else I will confiscate all the movies and leave you to have nothing to do other than wallow in self pity._  
_If you need anything else you can call out and someone will come, or else I will be in at lunch time to redress your wounds and make sure you aren't doing anything tiring._  
_From Will._  
_PS. Strictly no underworldy stuff, doctors orders._  
Nico looked over at the pile of DVDs and saw the aforementioned Harry Potter movies. All eight of them. There was no way Nico would be able to finish all of them as well as the marvel movies. But he would try.  
The Italian picked up the Philosophers Stone and put it into the laptop, settled down into a comfortable position and pressed play.  
By lunch time Nico was half way through the Prisoner of Azkaban and completely hooked.  
"Do you like them?" Will asked when he came in and set a plate of food down next to the DVD's.  
"Yeah, they're good. Did you say there was a book series?" The son of Hades replied, trying not to seem as excited as he really was.  
"Yeah, there are 7 books and they are all brilliant. J.K. Rowling is an amazing author and all the characters are beautifully written."  
"Yeah? I should read them."  
"You should, but right now I need to put some more ointment on those scars." Will said holding up the jar of goop. Nico swept some of his long dark hair out of his deep brown eyes and cringed. "Don't worry," Will continued, seeing Nico's reluctance, "It won't hurt nearly as much as it did last time."  
Nico held out his arm and sighed "Get it over with then," he barely even noticed when the dressing was applied because it hurt so little (and possibly due to the older boy's calculating gaze on his arm and because the strong hand gently holding his shoulder seemed to be radiating heat all through his body).  
"There we go," Will said, stepping back, "I shouldn't need to redress that again as long as you keep it away from germs and dirt for a while."  
"I think I'll be able to manage that."  
"I'm sorry but I cant stay and talk, a couple of Ares campers started a fight which ended in 14 hurt demigods so I'm pretty busy. See you later."  
"Bye sunshine," Nico said as he picked up the apple on the plate and took a bite. He then went back to watching Hermione punch Draco in the face and grinned. She was seriously bad-ass and reminded him slightly of Annabeth - Hermione would definitely be a daughter of Athena.  
The rest of Nico's stay at the infirmary was a lot like that. Watching Harry Potter constantly, except for short breaks when Will came or to go to the toilet.  
By the end of the three days Nico was a massive Harry Potter and Marvel fan but was itching to go outside and kick some monster ass. He hadn't just sat around for this long since he was captured by those giants and had to live off pomegranate seeds. But that hadn't exactly been relaxing.  
The Italian boy left his bed regretfully and wondered if he could come up with some kind of excuse to see Will more often. Sunny personality aside (pun not intended) he really wasn't all that annoying and had even managed to make Nico smile a couple of times, which really was a large feat. Only Jason and Reyna had mastered the art and they knew him better than anyone.  
Nico walked down the stairs of the infirmary and looked back. The blue door was slightly ajar, as though it was calling him back. But Nico turned back and kept walking. He would have to find an excuse to go back there soon, its not like he had anything better to do and he didn't bode well to being bored. But in the mean time he would go check up on Jason and the shrines, maybe he needed some help.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked the first chapter, if you did please leave kudos and comments. I would really, really appreciate them and any constructive criticism you can give me. If you didn't like it what can I do to improve?  
> This is my first ever fanfic so I would definitely appreciate any tips and pointers on what you did and didn't like about my writing style. Please?  
> Thankyou SOO much for reading this and I should have a new chapter up soon (although I have no idea of the exact date).  
> Thanks = )


End file.
